red and black cars
by silent-entrance
Summary: cat loves fixing things, and jade has always been a complete mess.


she calls her up one night, a mess of too much vodka and too many feelings. cat valentine panics because she is used to angry-bitter-perfect (her) jade west and when things change it makes her sort of uneasy, so she puts on a jacket and the first boots she grabs (but one seems lighter than the other) and walks to her house and on the way she counts three red cars and three black ones and she likes that because that means they match and when things match they're sort of _meant_ to be together, aren't they?

"hey, jade," she says when she reaches 193 blackwood drive and sits down next to her very best (just don't say it out loud) friend on the curb.

"kitty," she murmurs back. "my pretty kitty cat." and then there is a head on cat's shoulder and a hand wrapped around hers and a voice whispering in her ear, "your shoes don't match, princess," before both girls burst into hysterical laughter and the dog from next door starts barking.

"let's get you inside, jadey," cat whispers once the other girls laughter has calmed down to hiccupping and she's at that place between drunk-and-happy and sober-and-honest.

"you staying?" she sighs back, leaning into the smaller girl as she pulls her to her feet (doesn't she always?) and wraps an arm around her waist.

"do you want me to?"

"i don't want to be alone."

"okay."

/

they sleep together that night, a mess of red and black hair and hickeys on hips and as cat screams out her name as she comes apart (jade, jade, oh _fuck_ jade) she feels completely and utterly together. afterwards, as she wraps jade's hair around her thin fingers, jade whispers that she's happy and cat valentine thinks she has honestly never felt prouder. so she tells her this, and jade smiles and shifts so she is lying on top of her best friend before kissing her way down from her hairline to her nose to her lips to her neck to her collarbone to her chest to her ribcage to her bellybutton to her hipbones to her- oh _my god, _and suddenly she can't think anything at all.

"i love you," cat whispers into jade's hair that night.

"no, you don't," she replies, but they both know she means 'you, too.'

(it hurts a little bit the next day, but cat isn't surprised, because everything with jade always does.)

/

she'll never understand why jade keeps going back to beck. because she knows that he tastes the cat on his girlfriend's lips, and _everyone_ sees the 'i-just-fucked-tori-vega-in-a-closet' in his eyes and it's so completely mixed up but if everyone opened their eyes they'd all be happy.

"why do you keep doing it?" she asked once, as she was half asleep on her bed and jade was leaning against the wall next to her, their legs overlapping.

"doing what?"

"beck."

and there was a moment of silence because when it's just them, just catandjade and jadeandcat they don't talk about hollywood arts or anything it contains, especially boyfriends and who they may or may not be sleeping with. but jade answers anyway, because cat takes silence personally and she hates making her upset.

"he makes me feel safe."

"he makes me feel sick."

and then jade snorts with laughter and cat smiles before asking if she wants ice cream and that's the end of that-

_which is good, because tori vega is saying she can't keep sneaking around and beck oliver is sighing and saying you won't have to for long._

/

they have a very public breakup, all screaming and slapping and crying and drink-throwing and after they've given hollywood arts a performance like they've never seen (because everything else about their relationship was dramatic and public, it would be such a waste to part quietly on mutual terms and remain friends) they both spin on their heels and storm off into the opposite directions- beck, into the arms of a girl who will only break his heart and jade to the house of a girl who works so hard to fix hers.

/

so when jade knocks on her door at 1 am looking a bit sad but mostly tired, cat valentine smiles, because she loves puzzles and she has never found one as challenging as jade west.


End file.
